The Vyasa Puja Festivals - व्यास पूजा
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Vyasa Puja is a ceremony observed on the full moon day in the month of Ashadha called Adi in Tamil, corresponding to the English months of July- August, mainly for the general welfare of the world. It is a ceremony more important to the sanyasis (ascetics) and others, who have renounced the world, than to the worldly- minded men. Renunciation implies there are no restricted sympathies, affections and responsibilities which worldly men have in the shaped of family ties and responsibilities, to wit, the welfare of humanity as a whole. Hence the sanyasis and others, who have renounced the world and its pleasures, Perform Vyasa Puja to bring to humanity the blessings of the mighty sage Vyasa, the author of the famous Indian epic Mahabharata.
The reason why the sage Vyasa of all the sages is worshipped by the sanyasis and others who have renounced the world, is that the Adi Shankaracharya of the Hindus is believed to be Vyasa himself incarnated as that mighty teacher and consequently none deserves the Puja better than him. In fact, knowledgeable the people say that the worship of Vyasa is the worship of Adi Sankara and the worship of Adi Sankara is the worship of Vyasa. Any how the sanyasis, as the followers in the footsteps of Adi Sankara, whom they have taken as their guru, must worship him and they worship him by worshipping Vyasa on the Vyasa Puja day.
The mode of observance of this Puja is interesting and noteworthy. Rice is spread on a piece of new cloth and over it are lime fruits to draw the presence of Adi Sankara and his four disciples on. After the Puja ceremony is over, the rice is distributed to people which is to be taken home and mixed with the stock kept there. Let us pause to consider what significance might have been attached to this modus operandi.
Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, is said to reside in rice and new clothes. On auspicious occasion, her presence is invoked on a bed of paddy or rice which forms the staple article of food in the land. Further, it has been the timeworn custom of the Hindus that lime fruits (one or two of them) should be taken as presents when paying visits to kings and men in power to solicit favours. So we may say that lime fruits are intended to symbolize success in any undertaking.
For the performance of any of the ceremonies, we need wealth which is bestowed by Lakshmi. We pray for success in our undertakings, symbolising the same by using lemons. So the modus operandi in Vyasa Puja is perhaps for invoking the presence of and soliciting the blessings of Lakshmi accompanied by her husband Vishnu, for success in the undertaking.
Two centers were established in southern India, one at Kumbakonam in the Tankore district and the other at Sringeri in the Mysore state, to perpetuate the memory of Sri Shankaracharya and this festival is observed with great éclat every year at these places. People assemble there in large numbers to witness the performance of the Puja and to obtain the blessings of the sage Vyasa.
There is a hall in front of the central shrine of Vidyasankara in Sringeri. It is supported by twelve pillars. The architectural design is such that the rays of the sun fall on each if the pillars in the order of the solar months. Here is a practical problems for the would- be Hindu yogis to solve and for the advanced yogis to admire.
As the whole ceremony of Vyasa Puja hinges on the great personage Adi Shankaracharya, a short sketch of his life and work would not be out of place here. He is believed to have been a sage and a religious reformer. Some even go to the extent of saying that he was an incarnation of Siva (one of the Hindu Trinity). He was born at village called Kaladi on the river Alwaye, also called Churni, in Malabar. It was a day in the month of Vaisakha, when the constellation Purarvasu is said to be highly favourable for the birth of a great soul in the world. This marvelous child grew up to become one of the greatest religious teachers in the world.
The fifth day of the new moon fortnight on which Sri Sankara was born to Sivaguru, a pious Brahmin and his wife Aryamba, is a red letter day in the annals of south Indian religious history, going by the name Sankarajayanti day. His philosophical treatises are none the worse for the onslaught mad eon them by rival religious thinkers. In fact, his commentaries on many of the philosophical treatises have resisted the attacks made on the treatises themselves and have kept them unimpaired and free from corruption, through the ages.
Sri Sankara is said to have received his spiritual initiation from Sri Govinda Bhagavatpada. He is also said to have made a tour throughtout India for the purpose of reviving the religion of the Hindus since he thought that it had become corrupt by the pernicious teachings of certain new religious cults.
Three schools of thought are prominent in the Vedanta philosophy, viz., Advaita, Dvaita and Vishistadvaita. Of these, the Advaita school of philosophy owes its origin to Sri Shankaracharya and the other two to Madhvacharya and Ramanujacharya respectively.
Sri Sankara's philosophy, put in a nutshell, is simply this. This is only one reality, viz., Brahman, the Unqualified Absolute. When the limitations imposed on jives by layers and layers of matter are cast off, the feeling of separation of jiva and Brahman ceases to exist and the liberated jiva (if we can use the word since it shows separating) becomes one with Brahman.
The Dvaitavadins of the Madhva school of philosophy hold that there cannot be oneness of consciousness and that jives will always be feeling a separate existence from that supreme intelligence going by the name God, though there may be several degrees of intensity in that feeling.
The followers of Vishistadvaita assert that the Absolute is an identity qualified by diversity. Jiva or soul shares omniscience and bliss with God yet it is different form God in being an atomic mode (prakara) of God.
Sri Sankara is said to have had many disciples and of those, padmapada, Hastamalaka, Totaka and Mandana Misra are considered to have been the most prominent. He is said to have visited Prayag and Varanasi, and finally to have brought from Kailasa, the abode of Siva, five sphatika (crystal) lingas or phallic symbols. They go by the names of Bhofa Linga or the Linga that could confer on the worshippers enjoyments of every kind, Mukti Linga or the Linga that could ensure for its devotee liberation from the wheel of birth and death. Vara Linga or the Linga that could confer boons of all kinds. Yoga Linga or the Linga that could bestow in souls the bliss resulting from the unification of consciousness of the jives and the Isvara, and the Moksha Linga or the Linga that could give extreme bliss or Ananda, said to be the birth right of atma, the soul of human beings. These lingas now remain located respectively at Sringeri, Kethara- Kshetra, Nepal, Kumbakonam and Chidambaram. Sri Sankara's seat at Sringeri is know as Sarada Peetha. The reason for the name is that the goddess of learning, Saraswathi is said to abide in that sanctum sanatorium, radiating her influence for the welfare of humanity, having been installed there by Sri Sankara for the purpose.
Sri Sankara is said to have created many influence radiating centers in southern India choosing many temples for the purpose. Consequently people visiting those temples are said to return home greatly benefited by the magnetic influence pervading the temple atmosphere.
Sri Sankara has written commentaries or Bhashyas on the Bhagavat Gita, the Vyasa Sutras and on Upanishads. These help students to unravel the mysteries contained in those works of abstruse metaphysical problems. Sri Sankara appears to have had two classes of disciples going by the names Srotas and smart as. The former were passive listeners because they were new pupils just admitted and the latter were the advanced and acknowledged disciples, to whom regular instruction and training in Brahma Vidya was given. The of the Smarta class disciples. It appears that the Srotas became Smartas in course of time by the progress made by them in knowledge.
The word Sruti comes from Sru, to hear, and the word Smriti comes from Smru, to remember. Hence have arisen the words the Srutis and theSmritis of the Hindus.
Sri Sankara is said to have visited Badrinath, Kedarnath, Nepal, Ayodhya, Dwaraka and Gokula in northern India. In southern India, he visited Jambukeswaram, Tirupathi and Conjeevaram. In the last place, Sri Sankara is said to have designed the plan of the town, in the form of Sri Chakra, with the temple in the middle.
The reason why the sage Vyasa of all the sages is worshipped by the sanyasis and others who have renounced the world, is that the Adi Shankaracharya of the Hindus is believed to be Vyasa himself incarnated as that mighty teacher and consequently none deserves the Puja better than him. In fact, knowledgeable the people say that the worship of Vyasa is the worship of Adi Sankara and the worship of Adi Sankara is the worship of Vyasa. Any how the sanyasis, as the followers in the footsteps of Adi Sankara, whom they have taken as their guru, must worship him and they worship him by worshipping Vyasa on the Vyasa Puja day.
The mode of observance of this Puja is interesting and noteworthy. Rice is spread on a piece of new cloth and over it are lime fruits to draw the presence of Adi Sankara and his four disciples on. After the Puja ceremony is over, the rice is distributed to people which is to be taken home and mixed with the stock kept there. Let us pause to consider what significance might have been attached to this modus operandi.
Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, is said to reside in rice and new clothes. On auspicious occasion, her presence is invoked on a bed of paddy or rice which forms the staple article of food in the land. Further, it has been the timeworn custom of the Hindus that lime fruits (one or two of them) should be taken as presents when paying visits to kings and men in power to solicit favours. So we may say that lime fruits are intended to symbolize success in any undertaking.
For the performance of any of the ceremonies, we need wealth which is bestowed by Lakshmi. We pray for success in our undertakings, symbolising the same by using lemons. So the modus operandi in Vyasa Puja is perhaps for invoking the presence of and soliciting the blessings of Lakshmi accompanied by her husband Vishnu, for success in the undertaking.
Two centers were established in southern India, one at Kumbakonam in the Tankore district and the other at Sringeri in the Mysore state, to perpetuate the memory of Sri Shankaracharya and this festival is observed with great éclat every year at these places. People assemble there in large numbers to witness the performance of the Puja and to obtain the blessings of the sage Vyasa.
There is a hall in front of the central shrine of Vidyasankara in Sringeri. It is supported by twelve pillars. The architectural design is such that the rays of the sun fall on each if the pillars in the order of the solar months. Here is a practical problems for the would- be Hindu yogis to solve and for the advanced yogis to admire.
As the whole ceremony of Vyasa Puja hinges on the great personage Adi Shankaracharya, a short sketch of his life and work would not be out of place here. He is believed to have been a sage and a religious reformer. Some even go to the extent of saying that he was an incarnation of Siva (one of the Hindu Trinity). He was born at village called Kaladi on the river Alwaye, also called Churni, in Malabar. It was a day in the month of Vaisakha, when the constellation Purarvasu is said to be highly favourable for the birth of a great soul in the world. This marvelous child grew up to become one of the greatest religious teachers in the world.
The fifth day of the new moon fortnight on which Sri Sankara was born to Sivaguru, a pious Brahmin and his wife Aryamba, is a red letter day in the annals of south Indian religious history, going by the name Sankarajayanti day. His philosophical treatises are none the worse for the onslaught mad eon them by rival religious thinkers. In fact, his commentaries on many of the philosophical treatises have resisted the attacks made on the treatises themselves and have kept them unimpaired and free from corruption, through the ages.
Sri Sankara is said to have received his spiritual initiation from Sri Govinda Bhagavatpada. He is also said to have made a tour throughtout India for the purpose of reviving the religion of the Hindus since he thought that it had become corrupt by the pernicious teachings of certain new religious cults.
Three schools of thought are prominent in the Vedanta philosophy, viz., Advaita, Dvaita and Vishistadvaita. Of these, the Advaita school of philosophy owes its origin to Sri Shankaracharya and the other two to Madhvacharya and Ramanujacharya respectively.
Sri Sankara's philosophy, put in a nutshell, is simply this. This is only one reality, viz., Brahman, the Unqualified Absolute. When the limitations imposed on jives by layers and layers of matter are cast off, the feeling of separation of jiva and Brahman ceases to exist and the liberated jiva (if we can use the word since it shows separating) becomes one with Brahman.
The Dvaitavadins of the Madhva school of philosophy hold that there cannot be oneness of consciousness and that jives will always be feeling a separate existence from that supreme intelligence going by the name God, though there may be several degrees of intensity in that feeling.
The followers of Vishistadvaita assert that the Absolute is an identity qualified by diversity. Jiva or soul shares omniscience and bliss with God yet it is different form God in being an atomic mode (prakara) of God.
Sri Sankara is said to have had many disciples and of those, padmapada, Hastamalaka, Totaka and Mandana Misra are considered to have been the most prominent. He is said to have visited Prayag and Varanasi, and finally to have brought from Kailasa, the abode of Siva, five sphatika (crystal) lingas or phallic symbols. They go by the names of Bhofa Linga or the Linga that could confer on the worshippers enjoyments of every kind, Mukti Linga or the Linga that could ensure for its devotee liberation from the wheel of birth and death. Vara Linga or the Linga that could confer boons of all kinds. Yoga Linga or the Linga that could bestow in souls the bliss resulting from the unification of consciousness of the jives and the Isvara, and the Moksha Linga or the Linga that could give extreme bliss or Ananda, said to be the birth right of atma, the soul of human beings. These lingas now remain located respectively at Sringeri, Kethara- Kshetra, Nepal, Kumbakonam and Chidambaram. Sri Sankara's seat at Sringeri is know as Sarada Peetha. The reason for the name is that the goddess of learning, Saraswathi is said to abide in that sanctum sanatorium, radiating her influence for the welfare of humanity, having been installed there by Sri Sankara for the purpose.
Sri Sankara is said to have created many influence radiating centers in southern India choosing many temples for the purpose. Consequently people visiting those temples are said to return home greatly benefited by the magnetic influence pervading the temple atmosphere.
Sri Sankara has written commentaries or Bhashyas on the Bhagavat Gita, the Vyasa Sutras and on Upanishads. These help students to unravel the mysteries contained in those works of abstruse metaphysical problems. Sri Sankara appears to have had two classes of disciples going by the names Srotas and smart as. The former were passive listeners because they were new pupils just admitted and the latter were the advanced and acknowledged disciples, to whom regular instruction and training in Brahma Vidya was given. The of the Smarta class disciples. It appears that the Srotas became Smartas in course of time by the progress made by them in knowledge.
The word Sruti comes from Sru, to hear, and the word Smriti comes from Smru, to remember. Hence have arisen the words the Srutis and theSmritis of the Hindus.
Sri Sankara is said to have visited Badrinath, Kedarnath, Nepal, Ayodhya, Dwaraka and Gokula in northern India. In southern India, he visited Jambukeswaram, Tirupathi and Conjeevaram. In the last place, Sri Sankara is said to have designed the plan of the town, in the form of Sri Chakra, with the temple in the middle.